What Raccoon Dog Breeds Are There? Detailed Explanation of Selection Criteria

1. Breeds

The raccoon dog belongs to the order Carnivora, family Canidae, and is a medium-sized fur animal. According to "Fauna of China" (1987), raccoon dogs in China can be divided into 3 subspecies, namely the nominate subspecies, the Northeast subspecies, and the Southwest subspecies:

(1) Nominate subspecies: produced in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi and other provinces and regions, body length 50-53 cm, short coat, underfur is brownish yellow, guard hairs have fewer black tips, and the black longitudinal stripe on the back is also not obvious.

(2) Northeast subspecies: produced in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning and other provinces, body length 56-90 cm, long hair and thick underfur, obvious black dorsal stripe, underfur is bluish gray or light yellow.

(3) Southwest subspecies: produced in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other provinces, body size is significantly smaller than the Northeast subspecies, and close to the nominate subspecies. The underfur is loose and sparse, in a dark gray color, and the guard hairs mostly have blackish gray tips and are very short.

In addition, according to a report by Yoshio Kinugawa (1941), raccoon dogs in China have 7 subspecies:

(1) Ussuri raccoon dog, produced in the Greater Khingan Mountains, Changbai Mountains, Sanjiang Plain, North and South Plains and other places; (2) Korean raccoon dog, produced in the southern areas of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning.

(3) Amur raccoon dog, produced in the border zone between China and Russia.

(4) Jiangxi raccoon dog, produced in Jiangxi and its surrounding provinces.

(5) Minyue raccoon dog, produced in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi and other provinces.

(6) Hubei raccoon dog, produced in Hubei, Sichuan and other provinces.

(7) Yunnan raccoon dog, produced in Yunnan and its surrounding provinces.

At present, the one artificially raised in China with relatively high economic value is the Northeast subspecies, which is mainly the Ussuri raccoon dog, as well as the Korean raccoon dog and the Amur raccoon dog.

2. Body shape and appearance of the Ussuri raccoon dog

The body shape resembles a fox, but it is more obese, short and thick, with a short tail and short, small limbs. The coat is long and fluffy, and the underfur is thick. It is digitigrade, walking on its toes. Both the forelimbs and hindlimbs have well-developed foot pads. The claws are short and thick, and cannot retract. The coat is usually bluish gray or bluish yellow, the muzzle is short and pointed, the cheeks have long light-colored hairs growing sideways, and dark brown coat grows from around the eyes to the lower jaw, forming an obvious "" shape, and extends through the throat and front chest to the forelimbs. The guard hairs along the center of the back mostly have black tips, forming to varying degrees an indistinct black longitudinal stripe that extends backward to the dorsal side of the tail; the closer to the end of the tail, the deeper the longitudinal stripe. The hair color on the back is darker, appearing bluish gray; the coat on the sides near the abdomen is grayish yellow or brownish yellow; the hair color on the abdomen is the lightest, appearing grayish white or yellowish white; the hair color on the limbs is darker, appearing black or dark brown.

Adult male raccoon dogs weigh 5.5-8.0 kg, with a body length of 58-67 cm and a body height of 28-38 cm; adult female raccoon dogs weigh 5.3-7.5 kg, with a body length of 57-65 cm and a body height of 25-35 cm.

The Institute of Special Animal and Plant Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, using the mutant white gene in wild fur color (common color type), after 16 years of research, finally successfully bred our existing new color type white raccoon dog, the Jilin white raccoon dog. The new color type white raccoon dog has two phenotypes: one is that except for the eye rings, ear edges, nose tip, claws, and tail tip, which still retain the wild-type fur color, the guard hairs and underfur on other parts of the body are pure white; the other is that the guard hairs and underfur on all parts of the body are pure white. The two kinds of white raccoon dogs are the same as wild-type raccoon dogs in body shape, appearance, habits, and reproductive capacity, are docile in temperament, prone to obesity, and relatively heavy in body weight. The fur color of both kinds of white raccoon dogs is attractive, and the pelts produced are quite favored by domestic and foreign merchants, with selling prices higher than those of wild-type fur color pelts.

3. Standards for each Ussuri raccoon dog

(1) Fur and underfur quality: guard hairs black, dense, evenly distributed, even, without white guard hairs, hair length 8-9 cm; underfur bluish gray, dense, even and evenly distributed, length 5-6 cm. The difference between dorsal and abdominal hair is small, and the coat is glossy.

(2) Body type: at weaning, body weight > 1.4 kg, body length > 40 cm; at 5 months of age, body weight > 5.0 kg, body length > 60 cm; adult raccoon dog (11-12 months) body weight > 6.0 kg, body length > 65 cm. It is required to have a large body type, loose skin, large and spirited eyes, strong limbs, a robust body, and no disease.

(3) Reproductive capacity: adult male raccoon dogs should have a mating capacity of more than 10 times, so that the mating rate of mated female raccoon dogs is high, and the litter size is more than 10; adult female raccoon dogs are required to come into estrus in early March, with more than 8 surviving offspring per litter; for young raccoon dogs of the year, those from the same litter with more than 5 pups should be selected, with good growth and development, normal external genitalia, and more than 4 pairs of functional teats. The male-to-female ratio is 1:2-3.